Dynamic Lawyers has just issued a profile report about Toronto personal injury and malpractice lawyer, Howard Blitstein of Howie, Sacks &  Henry LLP.  In this profile report, Howard talks about how personal injury law is different from other practice areas, how trial are great learning opportunities, and how lawyers can develop good lawyering skills.  You can read the full profile report here:

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Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to retaining attorneys of civil law, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Ontario civil law attorneys registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in court proceedings or help settle your case.

Attorneys Civil Law
Civil law is all about parties suing each other for damages and other types of relief.  It can be distinguished from criminal law, where the state prosecutes individuals for breaking criminal laws.  Attorneys for civil law are trained on how to start a lawsuit, advance the lawsuit towards trial (e.g. through documentary and oral discovery), and then finally plead the case at trial towards ultimate resolution (i.e. unless the case settled somewhere down the road).

Limitation Period
One of the very first things attorneys of civil law will assess is whether there the case is statute-barred due to the passage of time.  Essentially, this means that if a person was injured and then, many years later, wants to bring a claim against the party that injured them, they may be end up automatically losing in court because they took too long.  In Ontario, for example, civil law attorneys will point to the Ontario Limitations Act, 2002 (which came into effect January 1, 2004), which generally provides that you have 2 years from the date you discovered (or ought to have discovered) your injury to commence a lawsuit.  If you try to bring a lawsuit thereafter, the opposing side can bring a motion for summary judgment on the basis that your claim is statute barred under the Act.

Typical Types of Civil Law Claims
The most popular civil law claims have to do with breaches of contract, negligence, misrepresentation (either negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, or innocent misrepresentation), defamation in the form of slander (spoken) or libel (written) and personal injury (e.g. you were injured in a car accident, a slip and fall, ill-treatment by doctors or health care professionals, or injured by a defective product).

Costs in a Civil Case
Unlike in the U.S., in Ontario, if you end up losing your case, you could have to pay for the other side’s legal fees (which may be exuberant!).  This is a large deterrent to not starting lawsuits in Ontario.  While judges have the discretion to award damages for legal fees to whichever party they see fit (or order no costs at all), they typically tend to reward the winning party by having the losing party pay for their legal fees on either a full (substantial) or partial indemnity basis.

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Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to retaining a personal injury attorney, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Ontario personal injury attorneys registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in court proceedings or help settle your case.

Personal Injury Attorneys: who are they?
A personal injury attorney is trained to represent parties (e.g. individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc.) in a civil dispute.   In civil cases, unlike criminal cases (where the state or government is the party that is prosecuting an accused person), one or more parties sue each other and the state is typically not a party to the proceedings.

What Personal Injury Attorneys can do for you
Some of the things which personal injury attorneys can assist you in include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Determining and advising you on your rights and whether you have a claim (e.g. for damages, for declaratory relief, for an injunction, for equitable remedies, etc.).
2. Explain the civil law process from the time you believe a claim arises through to trial, and finally to a court order and (perhaps) appealing a court order (if it gets there).
3. Negotiating with the opposing counsel to reach a settlement.
4. At trial, challenge witness’ credibility and testimony.
5. At trial, present expert evidence in the form of expert testimony and reports that are favourable to their client.
6. At trial, point out past cases (called precedents) that are in their client’s favour and draw analogies and parallels, while trying to distinguish unfavourable precedents.
7. At trial, protect their clients from answering inappropriate or irrelevant questions (e.g. questions that would tend to self-incriminate a party, questions which have nothing to do with the trial, or questions which makes the party give testimony which they are not competent or otherwise qualified to give, etc.).

The onus of proof
In Ontario civil trials, parties must generally establish the elements of their case on a balance of probabilities.  This means 50% + 1 %.  Hence, to establish that a party was negligence or breached a contract, it must establish that that party was more likely than not to have done so.   If, however, the elements of the offence are established, then a judge or jury may still find no liability or reduce damages accordingly if the other party had some type of justification or excuse (e.g. undue influence, duress, etc.).

When to consult with or hire a Personal Injury Attorney?
Immediately on becoming aware of the fact that you have been injured or suffered damages, you should consult with a personal injury attorney.  They can help take away your stress by explaining the law (e.g. your rights, your obligations, your entitlements, etc.), helping to formulate a proper strategy, and telling you about how the civil law process works from start to finish.  Again, if you need legal advice with respect to retaining a Toronto personal injury attorney, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

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Please keep in mind that this is not legal advice.  The information provided herein is for educational purposes only. If you would like to get in touch with a lawyer to determine whether you have a case worth pursuing, then you are encouraged to seek a professional (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

So the media today is focusing on an unfortunate guy in Calgary named Adrian Lee who had the disgusting experience (if you believe what he’s saying) of chewing on a beetle while trying to enjoy a Tim Horton’s chili two weeks ago.  He heard and felt a crunch in his mouth and spit up what he believes are the remains of a 2 inch long beetle!  Here’s the CBC video link.  While Adrian Lee wasn’t looking for compensation (but merely an apology and acknowledgment from Tim Horton’s), it’s worth looking into the legal implications of situations like these which are (unfortunately) not uncommon.

I’ve previously discussed the legal implications of what you can do when you find a fly in your soup, but it’s worth repeating here.  In these situations, you may be able to sue based on a store/restaurant/manufacturer’s negligence or a breach of their contract with you (i.e. you didn’t get what you bargained for). There are a number of questions that you must typically answer before a lawyer can tell you whether you have a worthwhile case to sue for either of these grounds. For example: did you suffer monetary damages by missing work? Did you go to the hospital and have to pay for medication? Did this experience make you lose any money at all (other than the cost of the drink you likely threw away)? Did this experience cause you to have a psychiatric injury (e.g. nervous shock, emotional distress, a major depressive disorder with associated phobia and anxiety)? Basically, if you sue, a judge will want to know what your damages are in order to award you with something if liability has been found. If you haven’t really suffered any tangible damages, then it’s not worth suing because you won’t get anything.

The importance of establishing damages in these types of cases was reiterated recently by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Mustapha v. Culligan of Canada Ltd. Basically, in that case, a person sued a company for psychiatric injury after witnessing a fly in a water bottle. The Supreme Court held that the there was no negligence or breach of contract because the person could not establish that his damage was caused in law by the defendant’s negligence (i.e. the damages were “too remote” to allow recovery).

Each case is different, but at the end of the day, success will depend on what the damages are and whether it was foreseeable that a person of ordinary fortitude would suffer serious injury from, for example, drinking something and finding an insect in it.

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Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to retaining an Ottawa personal injury lawyer or attorney, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Ottawa personal injury lawyers and attorneys registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in court proceedings or help settle your case.

Personal Injury Lawyers in Ottawa: who are they?
A personal injury lawyer or attorney is trained to represent parties (e.g. individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc.) in civil disputes.  In civil cases, unlike criminal cases (where the state or government is the party that is prosecuting an accused person), one or more parties sue each other and the state is typically not a party to the proceedings.

What Ottawa Personal Injury Lawyers and Attorneys can do for you
Some of the things which personal injury lawyers in Ottawa can assist you in include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Determining and advising you on your rights and whether you have a claim (e.g. for damages, for declaratory relief, for an injunction, for equitable remedies, etc.).
2. Explain the civil law process from the time you believe a claim arises through to trial, and finally to a court order and (perhaps) appealing a court order (if it gets there).
3. Negotiating with the opposing counsel to reach a settlement.
4. At trial, challenge witness’ credibility and testimony.
5. At trial, present expert evidence in the form of expert testimony and reports that are favourable to their client.
6. At trial, point out past cases (called precedents) that are in their client’s favour and draw analogies and parallels, while trying to distinguish unfavourable precedents.
7. At trial, protect their clients from answering inappropriate or irrelevant questions (e.g. questions that would tend to self-incriminate a party, questions which have nothing to do with the trial, or questions which makes the party give testimony which they are not competent or otherwise qualified to give, etc.).

The onus of proof
In Ontario civil trials, parties must generally establish the elements of their case on a balance of probabilities.  This means 50% + 1 %.  Hence, to establish that a party was negligence or breached a contract, it must establish that that party was more likely than not to have done so.   If, however, the elements of the offence are established, then a judge or jury may still find no liability or reduce damages accordingly if the other party had some type of justifcation or excuse (e.g. undue influence, duress, etc.).

When to consult with or hire an Ottawa Personal Injury Lawyer?
Immediately on becoming aware of the fact that you have been injured or suffered damages, you should consult with a personal injury lawyer in Ottawa.  They can help take away your stress by explaining the law (e.g. your rights, your obligations, your entitlements, etc.), helping to formulate a proper strategy, and telling you about how the civil law process works from start to finish.  Again, if you need legal advice with respect to retaining an Ottawa personal injury lawyer, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

written by admin \\ tags: incriminate, irrelevant questions, lawyers in ottawa, personal injury lawyer, personal injury lawyers, witness credibility

Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to retaining a personal injury lawyer, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Toronto personal injury lawyers registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in court proceedings or help settle your case.

Slip and fall law in Ontario is based on negligence law – i.e. a property owner was careless in doing something or failing to do something that ultimately caused injury and damages to another party.  This “something” may have been a failure to remove snow and ice from a walkway, spilled liquid on the floor, fix a hole or gap in the ground, or provide insufficient lighting in and around widely-used public areas.  In what is to follow, I’ll shed some light on some of the major considerations that go into slip and fall cases:

Duty of Care
Did the property owner owe you a duty to take care in the circumstances to do something or refrain from doing something to make the property safe (e.g. so as to prevent a slip and fall from happening)?  This so-called “duty of care” is a legal obligation on an party to adhere to a standard of care (discussed next), the breach of which may create liability for that party.  The Ontario Occupiers’ Liability Act supersedes the common law or judge made law duty of care and imposes a statutory duty of care on property owners as follows (s. 3(1)):

An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.

Standard of Care
Now that it has been established that a property owner has a duty to make their premises safe for people entering and while on those premises, the next step is to determine whether the property owner breached the standard of care through their conduct (i.e. actions or omissions).  Generally, property owners are held to a standard of care that would be expected of a reasonable property owner of ordinary intelligence and prudence in their circumstances.  Examples of negligence in slip and fall cases may include: failing to remove snow and ice from a roadway, failing to clean up spilled liquids on the ground, failing to fix uneven walkways, etc.

Causation
Even if a property owner owed a duty of care and breached the standard of care required, they may not be liable if their negligence did not cause the injuries complained of.  The general rule in Ontario is: ‘but for’ the party’s negligence (in other words, if the party’s negligence did not exist), would the injured party have suffered his/her/its damages and injuries resulting from the slip and fall?  Here, the injured party must demonstrate that, more likely than not, the property owner’s conduct was necessary for the occurrence of the injuries from the slip and fall.  Hence, if it cannot be ascertained as probable that the property owner’s negligence caused the injuries complained of, then the negligent property owner may not be ultimately liable.

Remoteness
Even if a property owner owed a duty of care, breached the standard of care, and caused the complaining party’s damages, that property owner  may still not be liable if those damages were too remote.  This means that the property owner is only liable for damages so long as the type of injury suffered was foreseeable as a probable consequence of the negligent act or was reasonably foreseeable as a real possibility.  The idea behind this rule is that it would be unfair to make a negligent party bear all of the consequences of his/her/it’s carelessness – especially when a moment’s inadvertence results in trivial or freakish consequences.

Defences
Even if a property owner is negligent (based on all of the factors outlined above being met), they may still have a defence that will either limit or negate their liability entirely.  Such defence include contribution (i.e. the injured party contributed to their own slip and fall accident by wearing flip flops on a cold and icy day with no grip), voluntary assumption of risk (e.g. the injured party had signed a waiver of liability in favour of the property owner) or illegality (e.g. the injured party was doing something illegal at the time of the slip and fall – e.g. breaking and entering, etc.).

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Mesothelioma law firms specialize in representing, litigating, and resolving disputes involving mesothelioma.  Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. This disease causes malignant cells to develop in the mesothelium – a protect lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs (source: Wikipedia.org).

Mesothelioma law firms have lawyers who are trained and experienced in dealing with scientific and medical issues that arise in asbestos exposure lawsuits.  The plaintiffs in these actions are typically construction workers who have been exposed to asbestos over a long period of time.   There is a latency issue in that exposure to ariborne asbestos particles may not result in any appearance of mesothelioma until much later after the first expsoure occurs).

Mesothelioma law firms typically represent the following individuals and groups:

• Asbestos insulators
• Brick layers
• Boilermakers
• Carpenters
• Chemical plant works
• Iron workers
• Labourers
• Pipeffitters
• Plasterers
• Power plant workers
• refienery workers
• Sewer installers
• Sheet metal works
• Shipyward workers
• Tile layers

If you need help finding the right Toronto mesothelioma law firm to answer your questions or handle your case, then make a post on Dynamic Lawyers.  It’s free, easy, anonymous and local lawyers will respond to you with information and quotes.  For more information about mesothelioma in the U.S., you can go to MesotheliomaLawyersHelp.com, a very informative and helpful web resource about mesothelioma.

Finally, as noted in the comment below, if you are a worker covered under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, then you won’t be able to sue your employer for injuries or damages as a result – rather, your remedies will be made available through the Workplace Safety Insurance Act regime (that’s why workers pay WSIB premiums).  It’s a no fault insurance for those covered under the Act.

written by admin \\ tags: Dynamic Lawyers, dynamiclawyers.com, mesothelioma, mesothelioma help, mesothelioma law, mesothelioma law firms, mesothelioma lawyers

Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to retaining a personal injury lawyer, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Toronto personal injury lawyers registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in court proceedings or help settle your case.

Personal Injury Lawyers in Toronto: who are they?
A personal injury lawyer is trained to represent parties (e.g. individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc.) in a civil dispute.   In civil cases, unlike criminal cases (where the state or government is the party that is prosecuting an accused person), one or more parties sue each other and the state is typically not a party to the proceedings.

What Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers can do for you
Some of the things which personal injury lawyers in Toronto can assist you in include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Determining and advising you on your rights and whether you have a claim (e.g. for damages, for declaratory relief, for an injunction, for equitable remedies, etc.).
2. Explain the civil law process from the time you believe a claim arises through to trial, and finally to a court order and (perhaps) appealing a court order (if it gets there).
3. Negotiating with the opposing counsel to reach a settlement.
4. At trial, challenge witness’ credibility and testimony.
5. At trial, present expert evidence in the form of expert testimony and reports that are favourable to their client.
6. At trial, point out past cases (called precedents) that are in their client’s favour and draw analogies and parallels, while trying to distinguish unfavourable precedents.
7. At trial, protect their clients from answering inappropriate or irrelevant questions (e.g. questions that would tend to self-incriminate a party, questions which have nothing to do with the trial, or questions which makes the party give testimony which they are not competent or otherwise qualified to give, etc.).

The onus of proof
In Ontario civil trials, parties must generally establish the elements of their case on a balance of probabilities.  This means 50% + 1 %.  Hence, to establish that a party was negligence or breached a contract, it must establish that that party was more likely than not to have done so.   If, however, the elements of the offence are established, then a judge or jury may still find no liability or reduce damages accordingly if the other party had some type of justifcation or excuse (e.g. undue influence, duress, etc.).

When to consult with or hire a Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer?
Immediately on becoming aware of the fact that you have been injured or suffered damages, you should consult with a personal injury lawyer in Toronto.  They can help take away your stress by explaining the law (e.g. your rights, your obligations, your entitlements, etc.), helping to formulate a proper strategy, and telling you about how the civil law process works from start to finish.  Again, if you need legal advice with respect to retaining a Toronto personal injury lawyer, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

written by admin \\ tags: accidents and accidents lawyer, court, damages, injuries, injury, judges, lawyer, lawyers, negligence, negotiating, Negotiations, partnership, personalToronto personal injury, report, toronto

If you have been in an accident or suffered an injury, you may need to find a Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.

This is not legal advice.  This information is being provided for educational and informational purposes only.  If you require a lawyer, you should seek professional help (e.g. by making a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

In this blog, I’ll be discuss the basis elements of the law of negligence in Ontario as it related to personal injuries and accidents.  Please bear in mind, however, that the law of personal injury encompasses more than negligence and tort law: there are statutory benefit regimes, breaches of contract, breaches of consumer protection legislation, etc.  But, for the purposes of this post, I’ll narrow my focus to the law of personal injury as it pertains to suing a party for negligence.

Duty of Care
Not everyone who is careless will be liable.  It first depends on whether that party owed the injured party a duty to take care in all of the circumstances.  This so-called “duty of care” is a legal obligation on an party to adhere to a standard of care (discussed next), the breach of which may create liability for that party.  One example of the duty of care in everyday life is the duty that motorists owe to other motorists on the road.  Another example is the duty that care givers owe to their patients.  Basically, for a duty of care to exist and impose liability on a party,the risk of injury must be reasonably foreseeable to the specific injured party.  To determine if a duty of care exists, Ontario court may (among other factors) look at how close the parties were to each other, whether such a duty exists in other jurisdictions, and whether it makes sense for other reasons (e.g. economic, fairness, efficiency, deterrent, etc.) to impose such a duty.

Standard of Care
Once a duty of care has been found to exist on a party, their conduct (i.e. actions or omissions) will be examined to determine if they met the standard of care required of them in the circumstances.  Generally, parties are held to a standard of care that would be expected of a reasonable person of ordinary intelligence and prudence in their circumstances.  This means that children will typically be held to lower standards while doctors will be held to higher standards (and specialists will be held to even higher standards).  In the commercial context, things like industry standards and customs will be relevant in determining whether a party has breached the standard of care.

Causation
Even if a party owed a duty of care and breached the standard of care required, they may not be liable if their negligence did not cause the injuries complained of.  The general rule in Ontario is: ‘but for’ the party’s negligence (in other words, if the party’s negligence did not exist), would the injured party have suffered his/her/its damages and injuries?  Here, the injured party must demonstrate that, more likely than not, the party’s conduct was necessary for the occurrence of the injuries.  Hence, if it cannot be ascertained as probable that the party’s negligence caused the injuries complained of, then the negligent party may not be ultimately liable.

Remoteness
Even if a party owed a duty of care, breaches the standard of care, and caused the complaining party’s damages, that party may still not be liable if those damages were too remote.  This means that the negligent party is only liable for damages so long as the type of injury suffered was foreseeable as a probable consequence of the negligent act or was reasonably foreseeable as a real possibility.  The idea behind this rule is that it would be unfair to make a negligent party bear all of the consequences of his/her/it’s carelessness – especially when a moment’s inadvertence results in trivial or freakish consequences.

Defences
Even if a party is negligent (based on all of the factors outlined above being met), they may still have a defence that will either limit or negate their liability entirely.  Such defence include contribution (i.e. the injured party contributed to their own injuries), voluntary assumption of risk (e.g. the injured party had signed a waiver of liability in favour of the other party) or illegality (e.g. the injured party was doing something illegal at the time).

written by admin \\ tags: accident, accidents, causation, court, damages, defences, defense duty of care, injuries, injury, law personaldefense, lawyer, lawyers, negligence, personal lawyer, Personal Injury, remoteness, standard of care, toronto, Toronto personal injury voluntary assumption of risk

Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to failure to warn, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Toronto personal injury lawyers registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in litigation or alternative dispute resolution.

With warmer weather around the corner, I thought I’d take some time to discuss the duty which Ontario property owners have to warn people of the dangers of diving in bodies of water on their premises.  Hopefully, property owners will be more aware of such a duty (i.e. assuming there is one in light of all the relevant factors and circumstances) and take reasonable and necessary precautions to prevent future injuries and deaths from happening in Ontario waters.

Section 3 of Ontario’s Occupier’s Liability Act provides that:

(1) An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises…are reasonably safe while on the premises.

Courts have found that there is no duty to warn of a danger which is so obvious and apparent that anyone would be aware of it.  Courts have stated that property owners  are required to exercise care against dangers that are sufficiently probably to be included in the category of contingencies which should normally be foreseen (see for example, Alchimowicz v. Schram and Woods v. Ontario (Minister of Natural Resources).

In determining whether a duty to warn exists, courts from various jurisdictions have taken into consideration a number of factors, including (but not limited to):

• The injured party’s age;
• Whether the injured party was inebriated from excessive consumption of alcohol;
• The injured party’s previous swimming/diving experience;
• The injured party’s familiarity with the water and surrounding area;
• The particular risk posted by the injured party’s activity (e.g. shallow dive from a standing position, diving off of a rock platform, etc.);
• The obviousness/awareness of the danger to both the injured party and the property owner;
• The practicability and cost of post warning signs;
• The injured party’s view of the bottom of the water prior to diving;
• The time at which the injured party dove (i.e. was the bottom of the water visible, was the property open to the public at the time?);
• The time of year (i.e. was the water cold, did the water level fluctuate, was the property open to the public at the time?); and
• Whether the injured party had been previously warned by experiences, signs, people, etc. about the depth of the water or the consequences of diving.

Once again, if you have been involved in an accident or injury that involved diving into water, you should consult a Toronto personal injury lawyer to determine if you have a case and seek representation to litigate/resolve the matter.

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